


Fallen Heroes

by RainySteve



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Other, The Burning Maze (Trials of Apollo) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 06:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16675972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainySteve/pseuds/RainySteve
Summary: Camp Half-Blood finds out about Jason





	Fallen Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Steer clear if you haven't read TBM and for some miracle you haven't been spoiled

Percy was having the first normal day at camp in months when the nereids brought everything to a screeching halt. Most campers knew better than to pay much attention to the beautiful women that lived in Camp Half-Blood’s canoe lake. They loved to take advantage of those unfortunate souls who didn’t know about their tendency to flirt until they got you close enough to dump you inside of the lake. The naiads had always paid special attention to Percy, him being the son of the sea god and all, but these weren’t regular water spirits. Nereids lived strictly in salt water, the fact that they were in the lake caught Percy’s attention right away. That and the utter look of devastation in their beautiful faces. They were definitely not there to flirt with him.

Percy didn’t pay much attention to the questions from the Stolls brothers and Clarisse as he deviated from their way to the dining pavilion. He walked up to the nereids, already fearing for the worst. He tried to calm his nerves by reminding himself that Annabeth was probably already waiting for him in the Athena table; he’d seen her not two hours ago. She was fine. “My Lord,” started the nereid. Percy didn’t know her. Something was definitely wrong. “We’ve been looking for you. Something’s happened. My sisters in the Pacific tell me a hero has fallen.”  _Annabeth is fine. It’s not her. You just saw her._ Through his nerves he made sense of what the nereid was saying. Pacific? She probably meant California.

“Is it Camp Jupiter?”

The woman submerged herself for a moment. Through the water Percy could see her consulting another nereid he’d never seen before. She looked younger, shaken. She finally came back up, nodding. “The boy bore the mark of the Romans, but it doesn’t appear to be the other Camp. He wasn’t alone, though.”

_Piper. Jason. A hero has fallen. The_  boy. “What happened? Who else was there?”

“The others are alive but the boy perished. I’m sorry, my Lord. We can’t sustain ourselves in these waters much longer.”

“Wait!” Percy reached out and caught her wrist before she could fully submerge herself again. “Are you certain? Are you sure?”

Her dark blue eyes softened, looking up at him sadly. “Yes, my Lord. My sisters made sure to at least retrieve the body. There was nothing left to do.” Percy’s hand went slack and she swam away quickly.

_Maybe it’s not him. It can’t be him. Not Jason._

“Jackson!” Clarisse’s voice zapped him out of his panic. “You done getting your fill of gossip? We’re gonna be late for dinner!” She walked to where he was kneeling and pulled on his arm. Whatever she was going to say died away when she caught his expression. “What happened?”

“Where’s Nico?” The son of Hades had confirmed his fears when Beckendork died. He’d know. Especially if it  _was_ Jason. He’d know.

“What? I dunno probably sucking face with Solace. Why-”

“I need to find him.” He got up and started heading towards the cabins but Clarisse caught his arm. He turned towards her. She was looking at his hands, which Percy just now noticed were shaking. He balled them into fist and shrugged her hand away. “I’m fine,” his friends had seen him and Annabeth struggle to more than a couple panic attacks since coming back from Greece. “Something’s happened. Something...I just need to make sure first.”

Clarisse looked like she wanted to say more and now she was definitely getting worried, but Percy’s sense of urgency was obvious and she let him go. She nodded and called for Travis and Connor, who had observed the whole interaction from a few feet away, to follow her back to the dining pavilion.

Percy’s brain felt sluggish. He tried to recall Nico’s schedule but his panic had turned to dread and his heart was beating so loudly it was impossible to listen to his thoughts. His feet instinctively took him back to Nico’s cabin. His eyes fell on his hunched from right away. His back was to Percy and he was sitting on the ledge of the bed. He walked towards him and almost tripped over his sword and shield. Clearly, he’d rushed into the cabin. “Nico.” He didn’t jump at the sound of his name. He’d heard Percy come in.

“He’s gone, Percy. “ He turned the slightest bit towards Percy so only half his face was visible. But Percy could see the shine of tears in his eyes. “Jason’s dead.”

Percy didn’t feel anything. His mind wa still reeling with dread and panic. What Nico was saying just made no sense. Jason couldn’t be dead. He’d killed a Titan with his hands. They’d just won a war. This didn’t happen now.

He didn’t say any of this to Nico, though. Because, through the noise of his thoughts and furious heartbeat, he’d caught the utter devastation in his voice. He rushed to him, seating beside him so he could see his pale, tear-stained face. With a jolt, Percy remembered how he looked when they’d rescued him from Ephialtes. He wore that same empty look in his eyes. Percy couldn’t bear it. “Nico.”

“I felt him go...I wanted to call his- his spirit but,” his voice finally broke. Percy hugged him, something awful hurting his chest at the sound of sobs racking through the younger boy. Percy knew that Jason had managed to connect with Nico in a way that everyone else had failed in the past. He was his friend, a good friend. Percy clung to that feeling of numbness. He couldn’t allow himself to lose it. Nico got to lose it. Nico deserved it.

Percy held him for what felt like an hour. It could’ve been ten minutes. His brain was still sluggish. Eventually, Nico calmed down enough to wipe his face. Percy knew him well enough now to know he’d want to do something erratic. He couldn’t blame him, but Percy also knew he’d just end up hurting himself more. “You can’t go looking for him, Nico. Not now at least.” Percy expected him to be angry, almost welcomed it. He needed to know he’d be okay before he did anything else. “Just let me figure everything out.”

“It doesn’t make sense for me not to look for him, Percy. How else are we supposed to know what happened? If someone else is hurt?”

_He wasn’t alone._  A new wave of worry for Piper, Reyna, Dakota, all the romans, stirred in Percy.  _Tyson!_  Nico made a lot of sense, but Percy didn’t want to let him.

“You’d think the gods would break their radio silence for something like this…”

“Did you try to contact your Dad?” Nico nodded, clearly he hadn’t gotten through to him. “Can you even go to the Underworld right now?”

“Probably not. But I could summon...him.”

Percy shook his head. That would just tangle Nico more and more into whatever was happening. Percy suspected it was probably linked to Apollo and whatever he’d been doing these past months. “You didn’t feel anyone else?” Last time Percy had seen Apollo he’d been with Leo. He was certain Piper wouldn’t have let Jason go on any quests alone, even after whatever had happened between them.

“No.”

Percy pushed his brain to go into overdrive, grasping at any possible course of action. Their silence was interrupted by someone opening the door. Will looked from Percy to Nico, panic turning into worry. “What happened?” He too rushed towards Nico, who took his hand but said nothing.

Percy looked past Will to the other person that had followed him in. Annabeth was asking him a million questions with her eyes.  _Are you okay? What happened?_  It was getting harder and harder for Percy to cling to his initial shock. “Jason’s dead.” Annabeth froze in her tracks, he felt Will do the same besides Nico. “We don’t really know what happened yet. But he’s definitely gone. Nico...felt him go.”

Annabeth’s gray eyes grew wide, still asking him, confused. She turned towards Nico, looked back at Percy.  _Is it true?_

Percy needed to do something. He needed a plan, needed to know what to do, how to fix it.  _You can’t fix this._  He got up, avoiding Annabeth’s pleading stare. Will looked at him. “Stay with Nico,” he told him.  _Don’t let him do anything rash._  Will nodded and Percy moved towards the door, taking Annabeth’s hand and guiding her outside.

Percy tried to think of anything he could do. _I’ll just go to California myself._ “Percy,” Annabeth said somewhere behind him. He hadn’t let go of her hand, he couldn’t let go. _I have to find Apollo and Meg._  “Percy.” Annabeth’s voice was firmer this time. She stopped and he was forced to stop as well. He only then realized he was standing right in front of the Zeus cabin. Maybe he’d been heading to his own. Either way, he stepped back when he saw the familiar marble door. Annabeth seemed to share his trepidation and guided them to her own cabin instead. It was thankfully empty since everyone was at dinner. She pushed him down onto her bed. “Tell me what happened.”

Percy recounted everything that had happened in the last hour robotically. Annabeth never interrupted him until he was finished. She looked as shocked as he felt but finally managed to say. “Do we know if the rest are okay? Piper?”

“Nico didn’t feel anyone else go. The nereids didn’t say much either, but I’m sure it has something to do with Apollo and Meg’s quest. Leo might’ve been with them.”

Percy heard Annabeth curse beside him. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. It didn’t feel real. Everytime Percy had a nightmare about losing his friends, he was always there. He’d always been there, one way or another. It was the only way it felt real. Besides, Jason was one of the most powerful demigods he’d ever met. It just didn’t make sense.

_Percy._  Through his sluggish thoughts he made out the sound of his name. He was sure Annabeth hadn’t said a word in a while. This was something different.  _Percy._

_Grover?_  He hadn’t heard from his best friend in months, hadn’t used their empathy link since before Hera kidnapped him.  _Grover is that you?_  A rush of excitement, immediately accompanied by despair overcame him. Percy saw a brief glimpse of Grover’s dirty high tops as he walked through what looked like a forest.

_Percy something awful happened. Jason…_

_I heard something from a nereid here at camp. Where are you?_

_I’m in California. He’s really gone, Percy. I’m sorry. Hedge and Mellie went with Piper._

_What happened?_  His vision suddenly flashed with images of a weird assembly of people. They had to be the strangest collection of nymphs he’d ever seen. As he looked closer he noticed Meg McCaffrey’s bruised face, Hedge, Mellie, and of course, the one and only Lester Papadopoulos. He couldn’t catch everything he said and his voice got frailer and frailer as he recounted what happened. But Percy got the gist of it. Another Roman Emperor, Caligula, had surfaced. Medea had helped him. They almost didn’t make it out. Jason sacrificed himself.

_Afterwards, I went with Meg and Apollo to the burning maze. Medea was there. We wouldn’t have made it out in time but Piper killed her just in time. They got a new prophecy, Perce. Something about Reyna. Caligula’s on his way to Camp Jupiter._

The words ‘Piper killed her’ rang in Percy’s brain.  _Are you with them? Are you going to Camp Jupiter?_

_No. I’m heading home, Percy. Piper left for Oklahoma with Leo and the Hedges_.

Good, Percy thought. At least Piper wasn’t alone, he would get to see Grover.  _How are you getting here? The gods have us on radio silence and none of our communications work._

_I’ll try out the labyrinth and find local nymphs or satyrs. I have to go now, whatever’s affecting our communications isn’t doing wonders for our empathy link. I’m sorry about Jason._

_Just be safe. Keep in touch_.

_We need to tell Thalia, Percy. Last I heard, the hunters were in Indianapolis._ With that, the connection finally gave out.

This morning his biggest worry had been school, college, his SAT results. He was back to being normal for the briefest of moments. Now, one of his friends was dead and the other Camp was about to be attacked. War never seemed to stop. It followed him everywhere he went. “That was Grover in the empathy link,” he told Annabeth. She immediately perked up. He recounted what he’d told him.

_“No.”_  She shook her head in disbelief, letting go of his hand and pacing around the cabin. “I should’ve been there. Piper-”

“She’s got Leo and Hedge and Mellie. She’s walking away from it, Annabeth.” Angry tears had started running down her face. She didn’t even bother wiping them away, imagining what her friend was going through while she was all the way on the other side of the country, with no way of reaching her. “Annabeth, Thalia doesn’t know.”

That got her to stop pacing. The look she gave him mirrored exactly what he felt.  _No, not her. She doesn’t deserve this._  “Grover said she might be in Indianapolis.”

They had both immediately seemed to have come to the agreement to put everything else on hold. Whatever attempts at not getting involved before were out of the question now. There was always going to be something to be done. They’d both always prefer to do it themselves than to have it fall onto someone else’s shoulders.

Annabeth hadn’t stopped crying, but she steeled her expression, nodding. “We need to call a head counselor meeting. Tell Chiron. Burn his shroud.” Like Percy, she was already grasping for a plan.

***********

They didn’t waste any time delivering the news. Everyone in the rec room of the Big House had lost someone before. Half of the counselors had gotten there because their sibling had died. Percy didn’t fail to notice that half of the faces there were different than the ones a year prior. Beckendorf, Silena, Michael, now Jason. It still stunned everyone into silence. The death of a child of the Big Three, a child of Jupiter, changed everything.

“Nico and I,” said Will after a few moments, “we’ll design the shroud.” No one objected.

“What about my sister?” Whispered Drew. It was all too familiar to her. “She can’t be alone right now.”

“She isn’t,” Percy assured her. She nodded, wiping away at her face, oblivious to her makeup. “Grover also told me Caligula was on his way to Camp Jupiter.”

“We can’t even warn them,” said Clarisse bitterly. “Or send back up. It won’t make it in time.”

“Meg and Apollo are on their way. Besides, Caligula is travelling through water, right?” Chiron was about to protest from his place at the other end of the ping-pong table, but Percy held up a pleading hand, the other was once again secured around Annabeth’s. “Tyson is there, Chiron. We can’t leave the Romans alone” Annabeth had insisted on going with him. They’d have to leave right away, tomorrow at the latest. Percy hoped Grover got to Camp before then. They’d have better intel and he just hadn’t seen him in so long. No one liked it, but the only one that looked like she wanted to object was Clarisse. It was just the only way less people got involved. Percy and Annabeth were the most powerful demigods, their leaders. They were the best backup they could send. “Someone’ll have to tell Thalia too.”

“I’ll go,” said Nico. It was the first time he’d spoken during the whole meeting. “I can move around fast and can get the hunters to Camp Jupiter if I find them in time.”

It was Percy’s turn to protest but Annabeth pulled on his hand. She gave Will a look and he said: “I’ll go with him.”

Percy looked at Nico. Before, he would’ve defied him.  _I’m not a child! You’re not the boss of me!_  But he’d grown up so much since then, been through so much. The war chased him as much as it did Percy. He didn’t object, a small agreement passing between him and Nico. Percy trusted him. He knew why he needed to do this. He couldn’t protect him because he knew how to defend himself, could hold his own. “That’s settled then,” he said.

After everyone started shuffling away, Clarisse came up to Percy and Annabeth. “I’ll go with you guys,” her voice sounded strange. “You shouldn’t even be going. I can’t believe Chiron would let you.”

“We didn’t ask him, Clarisse,” Annabeth told her. “We’re not asking you to go either.”

“Just walk away. You’ve earned it, both of you. No one has done more. I get that you want to do something about Jason, but he’s gone. It’s just the way it is. Let someone else...” She was pleading, her brown eyes uncharacteristically tearful. They both knew how much Clarisse didn’t want to go. She finally had a good, stable life. She was only at camp now because her and Chris got some unexpected time off from college in Arizona. They’d just gone through a war, no one deserved to go.

Percy thought back to his first weeks of camp, when Clarisse was ready to zap him with his electrical spear, her anger towards him after defeating her father. Then, that time with her godly brothers, showing her her deepest fears: her friends perishing around her, among them Percy. They’d come a long way, fought wars together. He’d gladly fight another if it meant she got the life she was starting now. “You’re not going with us Clarisse. That’s final.” She immediately bristled at the sound of being given an order from Percy, because she was Clarisse. “You’re going to go back to Arizona with Chris, and you’re going to live your life.” She looked to Annabeth, as if begging her to make him see sense. But her mind was as made up as his. “Go Clarisse. I need you to go.”

She looked like she was going to punch Percy. He braced himself, but instead she hugged him, pulling Annabeth in with her other huge arm. “Damn you! Damn you both!” She squeezed them so hard Percy felt his ribs protest, but he hugged her back just as hard. She’d made it, is all he could think. While some heros fell, sacrificed themselves, others got to see the other side. That’s why he fought, not for the gods, Roman or Greek, but for his family. For those who were good, who deserved the happiness that others sought to tarnish. If he had to, he would fight for the rest of his life for them.


End file.
